The MIND diet is an eating pattern built specifically around brain health, and its two most distinctive rules are about plants: at least six servings of green leafy vegetables a week and at least one serving of another vegetable every day. It blends the Mediterranean and DASH diets, keeps the foods those diets share, and adds leafy greens and berries as their own scored categories because the research on aging brains pointed to them specifically.

The name stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It was designed by the late nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris and colleagues at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and first published in 2015. Prevention's October 3, 2026 explainer on the MIND diet brought it back into the conversation, with input from co-authors of The Official MIND Diet. Here is the full scoring system, what each food group means in practice, and what the evidence does and does not show.

The MIND diet food list: all 15 components

The MIND diet is a score, not a menu. The original version has 15 components: 10 food groups to eat more of and 5 to limit. Each earns 0, 0.5 or 1 point, for a maximum of 15. These are the exact targets from the 2015 paper that defined it.

Component	Full point (1)	Half point (0.5)	No point (0)
Green leafy vegetables	6 or more servings a week	More than 2, fewer than 6 a week	2 or fewer a week
Other vegetables	1 or more servings a day	5 to 6 a week	Fewer than 5 a week
Berries	2 or more servings a week	1 a week	Less than 1 a week
Nuts	5 or more servings a week	1 a month to fewer than 5 a week	Less than 1 a month
Beans	More than 3 meals a week	1 to 3 a week	Less than 1 a week
Whole grains	3 or more servings a day	1 to 2 a day	Less than 1 a day
Fish (not fried)	1 or more meals a week	1 to 3 a month	Rarely
Poultry (not fried)	2 or more meals a week	1 a week	Less than 1 a week
Olive oil	Your primary cooking oil		Not your primary oil
Wine	1 glass a day	1 a month to 6 a week	More than 1 a day, or never
Red meat and products	Fewer than 4 meals a week	4 to 6 a week	7 or more a week
Butter and stick margarine	Less than 1 tablespoon a day	1 to 2 tablespoons a day	More than 2 tablespoons a day
Cheese	Less than 1 serving a week	1 to 6 a week	7 or more a week
Pastries and sweets	Fewer than 5 servings a week	5 to 6 a week	7 or more a week
Fried or fast food	Less than once a week	1 to 3 times a week	4 or more times a week

Source: Morris and colleagues, Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2015. The later MIND randomized trial used a 14-point version of the score, which is why some newer papers report scores out of 14.

Two things stand out. Vegetables are the only food group that appears twice. And the score is forgiving: nobody needs a 15. In the original studies, people in the middle third of scores also showed better outcomes than people in the bottom third.

What counts as a leafy green, and what counts as "other vegetables"

The study questionnaire defined both categories, and the definitions are broader than most people assume.

MIND category	Foods the original study counted	Target
Green leafy vegetables	Kale, collards and other greens, spinach, lettuce or tossed salad	6 or more servings a week
Other vegetables	Peppers, squash, carrots (raw or cooked), broccoli, celery, potatoes, peas, tomatoes and tomato sauce, string beans, beets, corn, zucchini, eggplant, coleslaw	1 or more servings a day

The list includes both raw and cooked vegetables. In practice, a spinach omelet, a side salad, sautéed kale and a bowl of greens in soup all land in the leafy category. If you are wondering whether cooking ruins the nutrients, it mostly does not, and for some carotenoids it helps; see do you have to eat vegetables raw.

Why leafy greens get their own line

The MIND researchers built the score from the diet and dementia literature, and two findings shaped it. Studies of aging adults kept finding that higher vegetable intake went with slower cognitive decline, with the strongest signal for green leafy vegetables. The same studies found no association for fruit overall. Berries were the exception, so berries became a category and other fruit was left out of the score entirely.

Morris and colleagues followed up in Neurology in 2018 with 960 older adults tracked for an average of 4.7 years. People in the highest fifth of leafy-green intake, a median of about 1.3 servings a day, declined more slowly on cognitive tests than people in the lowest fifth. The researchers expressed the difference as the equivalent of being 11 years younger. They also looked at individual nutrients that leafy greens are rich in.

Nutrient or compound in leafy greens	Linked to slower decline in the 2018 study?
Folate	Yes
Lutein	Yes
Nitrate	Yes
Kaempferol (a flavonoid)	Yes
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	Yes
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	Yes
Beta-carotene	Not statistically significant

The authors' practical conclusion was modest and specific: about one serving of leafy greens a day. That is the same number the MIND score rewards.

Does the MIND diet actually work? What the evidence shows

The honest answer is that the observational evidence is encouraging and the one large trial was not. A careful reader should know both.

Study	Design	Who	What it found
Morris et al., 2015	Observational, about 4.7 years	960 older adults in Chicago	Top third of MIND scores declined more slowly than the bottom third, equivalent to being 7.5 years younger
Morris et al., 2015	Observational, about 4.5 years	923 adults aged 58 to 98	Highest and middle thirds of MIND scores had lower rates of Alzheimer's diagnosis than the lowest third
Barnes et al., 2023 (the MIND trial)	Randomized controlled trial, 3 years	604 adults aged 65 and older with a family history of dementia	Both groups improved on cognitive tests. The MIND group did not do significantly better than a control diet, and brain MRI measures were similar
Dhana et al., 2026	Follow-up analysis of the same trial	590 trial participants	People whose MIND score rose the most (about 4 points) improved more on cognitive tests than people whose score did not change, and had higher blood lutein and beta-carotene
Soldevila-Domenech et al., 2026	Pooled analysis of 8 cohorts	17,368 adults in Europe and the US	Diet and cognition links were modest overall. Over time, only the MIND diet was associated with better executive-function trajectories

Three caveats keep this in proportion.

• The 2023 trial is the strongest evidence, and its main result was no difference between groups. Both groups also cut calories and received diet counseling, which may have narrowed the gap.
• The 2026 trial follow-up is encouraging but observational within the trial. People who changed their diet the most may differ in other ways.
• No diet has been shown to prevent dementia. The MIND diet is a reasonable, well-studied pattern for eating well as you age, not a treatment.

The detail worth noticing in the 2026 follow-up is how the researchers checked that people really ate the diet. They measured blood lutein and beta-carotene, nutrients concentrated in leafy greens and orange vegetables like carrots. In other words, vegetables were the measurable fingerprint of following the MIND diet.

MIND diet vs Mediterranean diet vs DASH

All three emphasize plant foods and limit saturated fat. The differences are in which plants and which animal foods.

Feature	MIND	Mediterranean	DASH
Designed for	Brain health with aging	Traditional eating pattern, studied for heart health	Lowering blood pressure
Leafy greens	Their own category, 6 or more a week	Counted within vegetables	Counted within vegetables
Fruit	Berries only, 2 or more a week	High fruit intake	High fruit intake
Dairy	Limits cheese and butter	Low to moderate	Emphasizes low-fat dairy
Fish	At least once a week is enough	Higher intake rewarded	Included as lean protein
Potatoes	Count as "other vegetables," no extra credit	Common in traditional versions	Counted within vegetables

If you already eat a Mediterranean-style diet, you are most of the way to a high MIND score. The two changes that move it most are adding a daily leafy green and swapping general fruit for berries a couple of times a week. For more on how diet patterns relate to staying capable as you age, see what intrinsic capacity is.

How to start the MIND diet with vegetables

Because the score rewards frequency, the easiest gains come from habits that repeat.

Habit	MIND components it covers
A side salad or handful of spinach with lunch most days	Green leafy vegetables
One cooked vegetable at dinner, every day	Other vegetables
Beans in soup, chili or salad three or four times a week	Beans
A handful of nuts as the afternoon snack	Nuts
Berries on oatmeal twice a week	Berries and whole grains
Olive oil as the default cooking oil	Olive oil

The leafy-green target is the one most people miss. Six servings a week is more than most Americans eat, and roughly 90 percent of adults fall short of the overall vegetable recommendation. For how a serving is defined, see how many servings of vegetables you need per day. If you are trying to widen the range of plants you eat as well as the amount, how many different plants to eat in a week covers that side.

Where SaladPower fits

SaladPower is made from six whole organic ingredients: spinach, kale, carrot, broccoli, apple and lemon. Two of those, spinach and kale, are on the MIND diet's green leafy vegetables list. Two more, carrot and broccoli, are on its other vegetables list. Each 8 oz pouch delivers 2x the USDA daily recommended vegetable intake, with 100% of the Daily Value for vitamin A, 5 g of fiber, under 100 calories and no added sugar. It is commercially processed, sealed and shelf-stable, so it is there on the days the salad does not happen.

It is one way to keep vegetables in the week, not a substitute for the rest of the pattern. The MIND diet is beans, nuts, berries, fish, whole grains and olive oil too, and we would rather you eat all of them. For older adults weighing it up, is SaladPower good for seniors covers the practical questions.

Frequently asked questions

What foods are on the MIND diet?

The MIND diet encourages 10 food groups: green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, berries, nuts, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil and wine in moderation. It limits 5: red meat, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food. Each group is scored 0, 0.5 or 1 for a maximum score of 15.

How many servings of leafy greens does the MIND diet recommend?

Six or more servings of green leafy vegetables a week earns the full point, plus at least one serving of another vegetable every day. The original study counted kale, collards and other greens, spinach, and lettuce or tossed salad as leafy greens, raw or cooked.

Is the MIND diet the same as the Mediterranean diet?

No. The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diets. It keeps their shared emphasis on plants, beans, whole grains and olive oil, but scores leafy greens and berries separately, does not reward high fruit, dairy or potato intake, and treats one fish meal a week as enough.

Is the MIND diet proven to work?

Not conclusively. Observational studies linked higher MIND scores to slower cognitive decline. A three-year randomized trial published in 2023 found no significant difference between the MIND diet and a control diet, though a 2026 follow-up found that participants who improved their scores the most did better on cognitive tests. It is a reasonable pattern for healthy aging, not a proven way to prevent dementia.

Do I need a perfect MIND diet score?

No. In the original 2015 studies, people with moderate scores also had better outcomes than people with the lowest scores. Adding a daily leafy green and a daily serving of another vegetable is the simplest place to start.

Sources

• Prevention. "Is the MIND Diet the Secret to Better Brain Health? Experts Weigh In." October 3, 2026. Read the original article
• Morris MC, Tangney CC, Wang Y, et al. "MIND diet slows cognitive decline with aging." Alzheimer's & Dementia. 2015;11(9):1015-1022. doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2015.04.011
• Morris MC, Tangney CC, Wang Y, et al. "MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease." Alzheimer's & Dementia. 2015;11(9):1007-1014. doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2014.11.009
• Morris MC, Wang Y, Barnes LL, et al. "Nutrients and bioactives in green leafy vegetables and cognitive decline." Neurology. 2018;90(3):e214-e222. doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000004815
• Barnes LL, Dhana K, Liu X, et al. "Trial of the MIND Diet for Prevention of Cognitive Decline in Older Persons." New England Journal of Medicine. 2023;389(7):602-611. doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2302368
• Dhana K, Aggarwal NT, Ventrelle J, et al. "Adherence to the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet and longitudinal changes in global cognition: a post hoc analysis of the MIND trial." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2026;124(3):101433. doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101433
• Soldevila-Domenech N, Ayala-Garcia A, Zhou X, et al. "Diet and Cognitive Function in Aging: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis from 8 Cohorts in Europe and the United States." Journal of Nutrition. 2026;156(9):101694. doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2026.101694
• Lee SH, Moore LV, Park S, Harris DM, Blanck HM. "Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations, United States, 2019." MMWR. 2022;71(1):1-9. doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7101a1
• SaladPower Nutrition Facts panel, per 8 oz pouch.

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